So while working out a druid build, I stumbled across something that might be quite potent. Basically, the interaction between the Animal Growth and Strong Jaw spells with the Improved Natural Attack feat.
In this example, say I have a Large tiger companion. He has a bite attack that does 1d8 damage. Improved Natural Attack would bump that up to 2d6, as if he were Huge. I now cast Animal Growth on him, he is now actually Huge, meaning his attack does 2d8 damage, as if he were Gargantuan. Now I cast Strong Jaw on him, which increases his damage by two size categories, with the extra effect that if he is already Gargantuan or Colossal, his natural attack damage is DOUBLED. Since his natural attacks are the equivalent to that of a Gargantuan creature, and Strong Jaw would push his attacks an effective size category above Colossal, is his natural attack damage doubled?
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There are no dire tiger companions, only big cat companions. Their bite does 1d6.
An ankylosaurus companion, on the other hand, would deal 2d6 points of damage with his tail, even without INA.
With INA, Strong Jaws and Animal Grows, he would deal 8d6 points of damage with his tail.
It's not that impressive once you realize that it's only an average damage of 28.
I didn't specify Dire Tiger, simply using tiger as an example of a Big Cat (which it is). According to the animal companion stat block for a big cat, at 7th level (when they advance to Large) their bite does 1d8.
Another candidate for something like this would be a Tyrannosaurus focusing on his bite, as it already starts out at 2d6 as a Large creature. Could be an interesting combination with Vital Strike (a common feat choice for single attack companions)
Using the natural attack size progression and assuming that my idea would work, a T-Rex would have a bite attack that deals 12d6 damage (double the 6d6 damage that a Colossal bite attack would deal). Vital Strike would double that to 24d6, and the Powerful Bite special quality would allow them to add double their Strength bonus to the bite. That's a pretty decent chunk of damage.
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You are right about the bite damage, but how do you get your 12d6 damage for a tyrannosaurus?
A large tyrannosaurus has a bite damage that does 2d6. With INA, that's 3d6. Add Animal Growth and you get to 4d6. Now, Strong Jaws allows you to double that damage, but it's still only 8d6.
Unless you are limited to standard attacks, Vital Strike isn't that great. An animal companion with only one attack gets another attack at -5 and especially with the tyrannosaurus' double strength bonus on damage a full attack might be a better choice.
I got the math by assuming that both the size category increase and doubling of natural attack damage of Strong Jaws would apply if the effective increase pushed it over that of a Colossal sized natural attack (which was the general premise of my initial question). So a Large bite is 2d6, INA to 3d6 (as Huge), Animal Growth to 4d6 (as Gargantuan), Strong Jaws would increase it one more size category (as Colossal) to 6d6 before doubling it to 12d6 because it's now effectively larger than Colossal.
Summoned monsters probably work better for this sort of tactic than animal companions since the companions tend to be smaller. Also, I don't think an animal companion can take the Vital Strike feat unless the companion has an Int of 3 or higher. The companion is probably better off spring attacking anyhow, and those two options can't be combined. I guess that taking Improved Share Spells so you can share Strong Jaw with your animal companion might be pretty useful though.
Anyhow, for some really big damage have your Druid stand behind the party as a huge hippo behemoth (Bestiary 2) with 15 foot reach (20 with Lunge), INA (bite), Strong Jaw, and Vital Strike. Then get ready for the DM to throw something at you because that's 24d8 damage before Str, GMF, etc. I had a Monk/Druid with all the right feats and spells for this, but I figured that the DM might appreciate me not biting stuff for 130 damage plus grab.
If the creature is already Gargantuan or Colossal-sized, double the amount of damage dealt by each of its natural attacks instead.It's either the increase or the doubling, not both.
but isn't it two size catagory increase?
but isn't it two size catagory increase?
Of course. Which is roughly the equivalent of doubling the damage, if you look at the damage pregression chart.